1. Technical Field
The present invention relates generally to docking systems for portable electronic devices, in particular, for those devices with multiple operational orientations.
2. Related Art
A wide variety of portable electronic devices are used for entertainment, business, and general communication purposes. These include dedicated music players, combination media players (which play back music, movies, and static pictures), digital cameras, and cellular phones, among many others. All-in-one devices such as portable digital assistants (PDAs) and smart phones that combine multiple features of voice calling, e-mailing, web browsing, gaming, and so forth, are also popular. Generally, portable devices are designed with the intention of being taken with the owner for use in any location at any time.
Having limitations with respect to battery power, connectivity speed, and memory, however, portable electronic devices are typically peripheral to a primary general-purpose computer system. Conventional portable electronic devices use rechargeable batteries that can be charged through the device itself. In order to ensure sustained portable use, the batteries, and hence the device, must be periodically connected to a power source such as a powered Universal Serial Bus (USB) port on the computer, or a separate power adapter. Furthermore, music, movie, and picture files to be played back on the portable electronic devices are typically managed and stored on the general-purpose computer, and loaded through the aforementioned USB connection. Data generated on the device such as captured images, video, voice recordings, notes, and the like are likewise transferred out to the general-purpose computer via the USB connection.
For recharging and interconnection purposes, cables are typically utilized. In some cases, the power cable may be separate from the data cables, though because powered buses such as USB are widely available, only one cable/interface is necessary. Sometimes the portable device may have a non-standard adapter, in which case one end of the cable has a connector that properly mates thereto and the other end of the cable has a standard USB connector. So that its utility is not diminished in case the specialized cable is not available, many portable electronic devices instead have standardized adapters such as mini-USB.
Alternatively, docking stations or cradles are used with portable electronic devices. In addition to the data connectivity and power functions, docking stations provide a more attractive and convenient stationary storage function. For media playback, the docking station can connect to television screens and audio systems via one interface. Furthermore, unlike cables that require the manual interconnection of the connector to the adapter, docking stations may merely require placement of the portable electronic device therein, as typical configurations retain a bottom portion of the portable electronic device. Side connection systems are also known in the art, which function similarly to the vertically inserted configurations.
Docking stations are also suitable for desktop use, i.e., holding and positioning the portable electronic device during normal usage. For example, multi-purpose media players such as the iPod family of devices from Apple, Inc. of Cupertino, Calif. may be connected to docking stations to playback movies, music, and the like on the device itself without connecting to external screens and stereo systems. This is a particularly attractive function with devices such as the iPod Touch or the iPhone that have large displays.
Along these lines, the iPod Touch and the iPhone include accelerometers that are capable of detecting the physical orientation of the device for displaying content differently. For example, the landscape orientation may be appropriate for displaying wide-format video, while the portrait orientation may be more appropriate for documents, web pages, and the like. Even within a single type of functionality such as music playback, different application interfaces may be presented in one orientation or the other.
Accordingly, there is a need in the art for an improved rotatable dock for portable electronic devices.